Joe Handley

And I got another hospital bill, just short of $5k Nearly had an actual heart attack this time.

These will be happening more as more EVs hit the streets, then get totalled and the tech gets cheaper. I'd love to see some sort of Show Rod with a fully polished and/or chromed Tesla gearbox out back Jag Rear end style

Ralph Gilles posted this on his Instagram today, it's the hearse that carried Lee Iacocca's body.

I've know R/C plane guys that knew better too, then again, some of the local retired guys that flew R/C would go out to the field first thing the in the morning on really windy days with their beater planes, then power up the radios while pointing them into the wind to see how long the plane would hover with just their inputs

He didn't have anything to do with the Edsel though.....he did save Ford after it nearly killed the company though.

Well, there are pilots that believe that if the wheel speed on their plane is off compared to ground speed, the plane won't take off, even though it's going fast enough to produce the needed lift with the wings.

I knew a local kid that went to work for a little airport in a different state and they had mechanic there that worked on private craft that lived at that field and he managed to convince some of the pilots that flew out of that field to do just that Now think about this, these were people who had enough money to learn how to fly then buy, store, and then pay somebody to maintain their planes

'86 sounds about right to me, turns out those VR50 tires when mounted up on the kit supplied Sawtooth/Eggshell wheels look dead on for those 225/50VR15 Gatorbacks too! Here's how they look in comparison to the kit supplied Radial T/A tires. The other tires might work out to be more like the 205/60R15 like my Lebaron GTS ran, but just under rated for that car was way too willing to do Thanks, I'm aiming for a "sinister" and "wouldn't want to meet it on a dark backroad" sort of look for the car. Think I'm going to paint it just plain, basic Black with Dark Bronze colored MiniLights and a "Blood Red" interior

Hope it's rebuildable, looks like somebody was using it as a boat anchor.

I was happy to find them with almost no digging, these look like they'll be perfect for the factory wheels, kinda hoping those MiniLights will fit too. I think these would be about what Chrysler would have put on them from the factory too!

Found these in a random box of parts I had aquired in the last couple years, no clue where they came from, but I think the 90's issue of the '41 Plymouth may have been the source.

New t-shirt artived today

Might as well! I was telling a friend of mine about this community build and that it should have an interesting and possibly weird mix of FWD Mopars and Mustangs by the time we're done with this

What as left in the kits after the updates was interesting for sure, has most of the parts to build an "early Turbo 1" as well as woudn't take much to make it a "late Turbo 1" either as well as still has all the parts to build one with an automatic! The BFG's aren't bad, probably would look right for some of the A-Body kits if you want to represent a restified car that doesn't have enough tire for anything more than a 2bbl 318. Other than the early SN95 Mustang convertible kits they made, I'm not sure if they ever made a tire that would be right for what we we would get, although what they would have would be decent aftermarket replacement tires on a "Day 2" type build. Agreed on the Minilights on a G-Body, think they would look right on the P-Body Shadow/Sundance/Duster (2 and 4 dr) as well as the H-Body Lancer/Lebaron GTS sedans too. Not sure how it's taken me this long to notice this, but I wonder if the "Crab" wheels like my Shadow had (I think those are in the '86 or '87 Daytona kits too) were inspired by the Minilight wheels, both have 8 similarly shaped spokes with a center "disk" like area.

I know, I'm going to dig through my stash of old AMT/ERTL kits that should have the smaller versions of the Goodyear Gatorbacks in them to go with those Minilights on this car. I know those Radial T/A tires has been popular on a lot of 1/1 stuff, but being S-Rated (112mph), I wouldn't run them on my Lebaron or Shadow since those were spec'd for H (130mph) and V (149mph) tires and didn't drive right with lesser tires. Even on the 200 I now own, the T-Rated (118mph) 0.E.M. rubber just wasn't enough for that car and I've only run V or Z (149mph+) on it since those wore out, also bumped those up to 235mm wide from the factory 225mm while I was at it I've bought a couple '84 kits, the '87 and '88 share lots of parts from the original '84 issue, even still has the '84-'86 tail lights in it too

Just ordered a set of these Narrow Minilights, minus the tires, off eBay for this model, should be seeing them next week!

I still get irritated thinking about when Dad and I had to stop and change a flat on his Town and Country on the 4th back in 2015 while Mom was still at their now preferred nursing home for the first time. He was having issues getting the right rear to hold air and we stopped at a gas station to put the spare on and the neighbors there were setting off explosive to the point it sounded like we were in a war zone and I was half expecting something to randomly fly out way until we were done.. Luckily we didn't have any pets with us and we don't have any PTSD issues between the two of us, but I can't imagine what it would be like if we had either.

I look for one of those every time I go to a show, but anything Shelby Dodge, or even FWD Mopar is tough to come by.

Thanks Stef, I did more research now and found that it looks like the back bumper did stick too far out, also just to happened to have the president of the local Shelby Dodge Automobile Club and owner of a 10 second SRT 4 swapped '88 Shelby Z look at it on my Instagram noticed it with the box stock rear bumper too this morning. I'm probably going to replace most of the exhaust with larger diameter rod as well, I'll probably recycle the muffler and maybe the cat....or turn the resonator that I don't remember my Lebaron GTS or Shadow ES Turbo 1 cars having into an aftermarket high flow cat.

He had even said that if he had been younger after the whole Daimler mess was over, he would have returned to try and help turn things around again.

Thanks Tom! The only real complain I've had about it is the lack of suspension represented since the rear coils would look more like inflated airbags than coils and there is no strut assembly to speak of up front what so ever, the 4 lug "custom" wheels that stuck around long after Chrysler changed the Daytona to a 5 lug pattern (5×100mm or 5×4", like the 1960-mid 70's A-Bodies) with any engine, suspension, and wheel/tire combo offered, then finally the optional "V-8 Swap" that would make it truely a "No Go Show Boat" since it had no real, useable transmission (basically a PTO drirectly off the bellbousing) and then the driveshafts from a Non Turbo car that would steer the car into what ever happened to be to it's right if you could get it moving without stalling in the first place!

Thanks!

GreenJeep1998, I just posted up a bunch of pics of an '88 Dodge Daytona Shelby Z I also have posted on here and some of the Hot Wheels Diaper Dragger I plan on taking apart and refinishing.

These were an offshoot of his K-Car and mechanically related to their early minivans (although the brakes on Dad's '06 T&C look like they might still bolt on) as well. This was kind of their version of the Pony Car at the time and built using their current economy car platform, much like the Mustang being built from the Falcon back in the 60's. This box art does give you a better idea what's in the box than the AMT/ERTL era boxes did, just not as well presented as the original MPC box art for their issues of the early "4 eye" ('84-'86 or '87) cars. It honestly looks like it was built by somebody who knew little of the cars and didn't bother to learn much about them to build the red box art car.......like the buckets the headlights fit in are matte black, not body color One interesting thing about this kit is that they include half the parts to build this as a Turbo 1 "draw through" car that could be built with the A-413 3 speed auto as well as the Getrag 5 speed manual. Probably wouldn't take much to open the gates to the early "Draw Through" T1 engine pieces that are missing as well as tool the few pieces needed to build later "Blow Through" T1 that would both be right for this version of the Daytona as well. The V-8 swap parts offered are horrible and make the car less than driveable, even if it was show only! The V-8 looks like no domestic Pushrod engine I've ever seen, it doesn't have a transmission, just what is more or less a power take off or V-Drive assembly that attatches directly to the bellhousing and goes into a driveshaft assembly that would be right for a 2.2/2.5 TBI build, but would induce violent torque steer with anything that looks like it might have enough power to get out of it's own way. It also bugs me that AMT/ERTL never updated the aftermarket wheels to represent something with 5 lugs after Chrysler made that change to all the Daytonas and Lazers starting in '85, no matter the drivetrain, suspension, or rolling stock.......that said, those look like they would work well on a Japanese tuner car from that period!

Ok, couldn't sleep and ended up doing more work on the Daytona. To start, I got the front bumper assembly put together and cemented into place, as was the firewall and sunroof panel. Also tucked the rear bumper some, looks better now that it isn't sticking as far out as it had been. I also moved onto assembling the front seats and then getting into what would be the greasy bits...especially now that the 1/1 cars would be 30 years old and likely "unloved". I partially assembled the engine and transaxle and removed the A/C since there was no bracket for it on the head or on the trees. Finally, I'm putting a rather simple little handling trick for the K-Cars and their offshoots on it that has been know by the Shelby Dodge community for a couple decades now. The stock axles on all of the K-Cars (the L-Body Omni-rizon and Charger/Duster don't count here) use a u channel axle that is welded to a pair of swing arm like arms under the back seats then located with a track bar then dampened with normal tube shocks (which apparently can be used on a pre Tri-5 Chevy when the coils have been cut to drop the front ends?!) For the trick, if you clamp or weld steel strip or L-Channel over the channel in the rear axle, it changes the roll stiffness like a rear sway bar would and you can tune the effect by how it's welded or how many u-bolts you are holding these parts together with. More welds and/or u-bolts used stiffens the U-channel and tightens up the cornering.